Folic Acid vs. Folate Explained and Simplified

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let’s talk about the difference between folic acid and I’m talking about the synthetic version of vitamin B9 as well as folate the natural version are they the same you know so many women when they’re pregnant they start taking a prenatal that is just loaded up with this synthetic folic acid and there’s a lot of data to show that that can help prevent things like neural tube defects which is an incomplete closure of the spinal column and so it’s true it does do that but with more and more people recognizing that they may have a mutation with a certain Gene that relates to B9 I think we should talk about it there’s a very common problem with a gene that is called MTHFR it involves an enzyme in converting folic acid into the active form so your body can use it so if you have a problem with this Gene your ability to get this active form of B9 is greatly inhibited and if you end up taking this synthetic version version which called folic acid you can have a lot of problems because it can accumulate as unmetabolized folic acid now it probably is not going to become a problem unless you take large amounts but the fact that if you have this mutation you’re going to be deficient so there’s this delicate balance of getting just the right amount of this B9 because here’s the thing B9 actually does a lot of things it protects against the initiation of cancer because B9 helps to protect the DNA against problems with the code and if you have just the right amount of B9 it can protect this damage within the DNA that can potentially then lead to cancer B9 also is involved in the initiation of new cancer cells that sounds like it’s kind of conflicting on one hand it prevents the initiation of new cancer cells but on the other hand it can actually help grow this cancer cells but based on the data that I read it’s really when you have way too much of this folic acid so this complicates things because with this mutation you need more than you normally should have yet you don’t want to get too much so the solution of to this problem is to take a type of B9 that doesn’t have to be converted okay it doesn’t require this enzyme so in other words this mutation is a no issue why because it’s ready to be used and can be easily absorbed in the body and that is called methylfolate and there’s other long names for it but basically it’s a type of B9 that’s easily absorbed and it doesn’t require these other enzyme reactions like the synthetic folic acid now sometimes you’ll hear reports and studies that show that regardless of this mutation you still need to take this synthetic folic acid to prevent neural tube defects because there is no studies comparing the synthetic folic acid to this methyl folate and that’s true and they’re not going to do studies because to do that on humans right it’s too dangerous it’s too unethical so it’s not going to be done so you’re just going to have to use common sense if you even if you compare these two versions of B9 it’s going to be more effective for you to get enough B9 in your blood using the methyl folate version the other thing is if you have this mutation there’s some studies to show that if you’re taking way too much synthetic folic acid or the mother’s taking way too much that can increase the risk of autism by a factor of 17 x and the synthetic folic acid cannot fix this mutated Gene in fact it can block the natural version of folate and potentially increase your risk of getting cancer so that being said the question is how do I make sure I’m not getting too much of this synthetic version well unfortunately it’s put in our food supply it’s as part of the fortification for all cereals okay that kids eat also adults it’s used in all the breads the pasta the cereal the crackers the biscuits the energy drinks a lot of the synthetic vitamins as well as fortified nutritional yeast that’s why I always recommend to get the unfortified version of that even more importantly is to start to consume the foods that are high in this natural B9 which is consuming more dark leafy green vegetables the last point I want to bring up is that if a person has this genetic problem and they’re taking a lot of folic acid to prevent let’s see anemia or some other problem what can happen is they can end up camouflaging a B12 deficiency because B9 and b12 work together and that can create problems with an increase of something else that I want to kind of just summarize very simply it’s called homocysteine homocysteine is a bad compound that can increase your risk of getting heart attacks and strokes and homocysteine also affects the inside of the artery the endothelial tissue it inhibits this nitric oxide that then can cause you to have high blood pressure and create all sorts of problems but it’s not just a problem inside your heart it can affect other areas as well because if there’s a diminished nitric oxide you can end up with erectile dysfunction now since we’re on this topic if you have not seen my video on B12 that would be the next video to watch check it out